In a Badger Way (Honey Badger Chronicles #2) - Shelly Laurenston Page 0,121

right? You should do, like, ‘Ave Marie’ or something. These guys would eat that up.”

“Uh-huh.”

“We cannot wait to hear what you’ll sing. They even have a piano up there, and I’m sure they have someone who can play and accompany you. It will be awesome. Right, girls?”

“Right!” the She-lions said in unison.

Brunetti placed her hand on Stevie’s forearm. Stevie gazed down at the excessively long painted nails touching her skin. “If you need anything, honey, you just let me know. We have extra costumes, makeup, a makeup artist. Whatever you need. Okay?”

“Sure.”

“Okay. Talk to you later!”

Stevie watched the She-cats rush off in their ridiculously high heels.

“They seem nice,” Shen said, stepping in beside her.

Both Stevie and Oriana gaped at him.

“Are you kidding?” Oriana demanded.

“What? They did seem nice. Very friendly.”

“Yeah, Svetlana’s ‘nice’ like that,” she said with air quotes. “Like when she tells me, ‘Darlink, you performed so wonderful tonight. I know that in few more years, you will be quite good.’ Do you think that’s a compliment too, Shen?”

“I would have but now I don’t know.”

“Don’t be upset with him,” Stevie graciously explained to her friend. “He’s a panda and he’s used to everyone being nice to him because he’s so cute.”

“I’m going back to sit with Kyle,” Shen said. “That should tell you both exactly how I feel about this conversation.”

He walked off and Oriana asked, “So what are you going to do?”

* * *

Coop rested his chin in his palm, his elbow on the booth table in front of him. In silence, he watched what was going on just a few feet away from him.

“What is happening?” he asked Cherise, motioning to the MacKilligan sisters.

The three women were standing between their booth and the booth holding the Brunetti Pride and their feline friends, which just seemed weird.

Cherise stopped sipping the fruity alcoholic drink she’d been indulging in, purchased simply because it was a bright “and festive!” red and had an umbrella in it. His sister did love umbrellas.

“I think they’re trying to talk Stevie into getting up on stage.”

“Yeah, I guess.”

“What?”

“Well . . .” Cooper didn’t really know how to explain it. Maybe it was the way Charlie insisted on stroking Stevie’s hair. Something he’d never seen either MacKilligan sister do for the others. Or maybe it was the way Max kept saying, “We’ll go with you. We wouldn’t let you do this alone.” Max was never nice to Stevie. Of course, Stevie wasn’t nice to Max. A situation that Coop didn’t question because that’s how some siblings were. They’d rather fight than be nice to each other. It didn’t break the bond they had as siblings.

But this all seemed really weird.

“Hiiiiiiii, Cooper.”

Coop kept his cringe inside and forced a smile at the She-lion leaning over the two connected booths.

“Hi, Denise,” he replied.

“You look very handsome tonight.”

“Thanks.” He knew she was waiting for a similar compliment from him, but he just pointed at his sister and said, “You remember Cherise.”

“Oh. Yeah. Hi.”

Cherise, again sucking up that brightly colored drink, waived her hand and smiled around her straw.

Denise’s older sister, Mary Marie, forced her way in.

“Hi, Cooper,” she said, leaning over a little more so he could see her cleavage. Something he didn’t really want to see. To be honest, he saw cleavage all the time. Some enhanced. Some natural. But he saw it so much that it took a lot more than that to catch his interest. He wasn’t some horny full-human male who would fuck anything that moved. He was a jackal looking for a future mate. He wanted something more than big tits and equally big nails. And although he didn’t care if a woman he might like already had a kid or two of her own, he didn’t like the fact that She-lions would have their kids with the lion males they kept around and then, when they felt they were done breeding, they’d start looking outside the Pride for males to have long-term relationships with. In other words, they didn’t want to have “freaks”—as he’d heard the Brunetti Pack refer to Blayne and Gwen whenever the pair passed by the Pride at one of these events.

“Hi, Mary Marie.” He returned his focus to the three MacKilligan sisters.

“You know them?” Mary Marie asked.

“Yes. They’re friends of the family.” Which was mostly true because anyone who could put up with Kyle for as long as the sisters had would always be considered family friends.

“Ahhh.” She leaned down a little closer. “Word is Jess Ward brought